Allen Memorial Art Building

Date

1917-present (addition, 1938; Venturi wing, 1976; renovation, 2011)

Location

87 North Main Street

Architects/Collaborators

Cass Gilbert (1859-1934), New York City (architect)
John H. Parker Co., New York City (builder)
1938 addition:
Clarence Ward (Professor of Art and Allen Art Museum Director), Oberlin (architect)
J.B. Annible (contractor)
1976 Venturi Wing:
Venturi and Rauch, Philadelphia, PA (architect)
2011 renovation:
Samuel Anderson Architects, New York City (architects)
McClure Engineering, St. Louis, MO (engineers)

Style

Renaissance Revival

History

A gift from the estate of Oberlin physician Dudley Peter Allen (OC 1875) in 1915 provided the College with an opportunity to create an art building to showcase its art collections and support the art curriculum. Dr. Allen admired Cass Gilbert's Finney Chapel, and consulted steadily with the architect about the museum project through his last years. His widow, Elizabeth, was the daughter of oil millionaire Louis Henry Severance, donor of Severance Laboratory. Elizabeth Allen saw the project through to its completion in 1917. The museum was to be one of three large structures which Gilbert and President Henry Churchill King projected for the east side of Tappan Square, but only the art museum was realized. Arrangements inside the building, with a central sculpture court flanked by galleries and academic work rooms, made for Oberlin's most sumptuous indoor space. The outdoor fountain court to the east of the main block remains a delightful feature. Gilbert exercised closer personal control over the museum's construction than in any of his other local commissions, guarding quality in every detail, from the iron grillwork to the texture of mortar sand.

Clarence Ward, Professor of the History and Appreciation of Art from 1916 and Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum from 1917, was an architect as well as a scholar. In 1937 he designed a much-needed addition for lecture rooms, an auditorium and offices that blends so well with Gilbert's design as to be nearly indistinguishable from the outside. It opened in 1938, and continues to serve its original functions, except for the auditorium, which was repurposed as a student gallery space. It was not until 1976 that the building's space and functions were expanded with another addition, the Venturi Wing (see separate entry).

In 2011 a two-year renovation project was completed to provide new infrastructure and sustainablilty, setting a precedent for historic museum structures. The museum was awarded LEED gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

For other Cass Gilbert buildings in Oberlin, see Bosworth Hall, Allen Memorial Hospital, Cox Administration Building, and Finney Chapel.

Sources

Geoffrey Blodgett, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History (Oberlin, OH: 1985), 26-27.

Amanda Nagy, "A Masterpiece in Green Renovation: Art Museum Earns Gold LEED Certification," The Source, Oberlin College, September, 26, 2011.